If asked why I write and publish articles, most people would probably guess that I want to “teach” whatever it is that I know (or think I know).

They’d be wrong.

I don’t write to teach, I write to learn.

Something interesting crosses my mind. I’m drawn (I think by our Father YHWH ha Elohiym) to write about it. As I do, word-by-word and phrase-by-phrase, I often find new insight(s) that I never imagined before I started writing the article. Thus, I learn from writing.

Learning excites me. Writing is exciting.

This is not to say that everything I “learn” from writing is true. But much of what I learn is interesting (at least to me) and new (at least to me).

I don’t publish articles in order to teach. I publish to share what I’ve most recently learned.

The following article is an example of the writing-is-learning process. I started out to write a 1,200 word article. I ended with nearly 4,200 words. The extra 3,200 words were necessary for me to learn some lessons and insights that I found fascinating.

I hope you’ll also find the lessons I learned to be interesting and, to some degree, true.

After months and even years of wrangling, and at virtually the last possible moment, the Greek government recently capitulated to creditors’ (outrageous) demands.

Strangely, within hours of the Greek government’s surrender the IMF released a report which Reuters describe in, “Analysis: IMF threat to pull out of Greek bailout challenges Germany”:

“The International Monetary Fund’s threat to pull out of bailouts for Greece unless European partners grant Athens massive debt relief poses a stark challenge to Germany, the biggest creditor, which insists on IMF involvement in any future rescue . . . . [The IMF is] saying in essence that Greece will never be able to repay its debt mountain, . . . .

“The report’s conclusion that Greece needs debt relief “on a scale that would need to go well beyond what has been under consideration to date” . . . . To avoid big writedowns, Greece would have to be given either a 30-year grace period before it starts servicing or repaying all European loans, present and future, or large fiscal transfers by the euro zone.”

In other words, the only ways the current Greek debt deal can work is if 1) Greece is allowed to wait 30 years before it starts paying off its debt; or, 2) European creditors will have to lend Greece hundreds of billions of additional euros to allow Greece to repay its existing debt now.

Either way, Greece is broke, hasn’t paid its major debts in at least five years and won’t be able to repay existing debt for another 30 years. Greece is in default. Greece is bankrupt, although its creditors refuse to admit that fact.

“Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, wrote a letter to IMF head, Ms. Lagarde, warning that the IMF repayment would be missed unless the European Central Bank immediately raised its curbs on Greece’s ability to issue short-term debt.”

“Raising the curbs on Greece’s ability to issue short-term debt” makes about as much sense as Congress passing a law that allows me to fly by flapping my arms. If it were legal for me to fly by flapping my arms, I still couldn’t fly. Even if it’s legal for Greece to sell more short-term debt, who’d be dumb enough to buy it?

Daily Hip Shots are occasional articles that I haven’t considered for long or proofread as much as I’d like, but still contain the germ of an observation, idea or insight that you might find interesting.

“European equity markets might be cheering a deal to extend Greece’s aid by four months, but many ordinary Greeks feel their government has backtracked from its grand promises to strike out the bailout.

“Greece is now scrambling to present a list of reform proposals in order to secure the financial lifeline. “

The significance of these “reform proposals” is this: Last Friday’s celebrated agreement to extend the Greek’s loans for another 4 months is not yet final.